Active COVID-19 infections breach 3,000 mark in TN

Reeling under a surge in daily coronavirus cases, Tamil Nadu on Saturday added 596 new infections, including four returnees from overseas, pushing the tally to 34,60,182 till date.

The toll remained unchanged at 38,026 with zero fatalities being reported in the last 24 hours, a medical bulletin said. The number of those recuperated from the virus went up to 34,19,083 with 217 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, leaving 3,073 active infections.

Chennai and neighbouring Chengalpet accounted for the bulk of cases with 295 and 122, respectively, while the remaining was scattered across 24 of the total 38 districts.

The state capital leads among districts with 1,503 active cases and 7,54,889 infections overall. A total of 15,953 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of tests so far to 6,68,70,528, the bulletin stated.

Meanwhile, Principal Health Secretary P Senthil Kumar wrote to district collectors asking them to take steps to curb the virus spread.

Recalling Chief Minister M K Stalin's recent review meeting on the status of COVID-19 with Collectors, Kumar said the CM offered instructions to the districts.

Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian also reviewed the measures taken in Chennai and Chengalpet as the number of cases in the two districts were more than 100, Kumar said.

In his first letter to the District Collectors after assuming the new role, Kumar said it was essential to do complete contact tracing, saturation testing of the contacts of the positive cases to prevent further spread.

Home isolation of positive cases should be followed up, and a tablet pack containing paracetamol, Vitamin-C and Zinc tablets may be provided to mild COVID-19 positive patients, he said.

Those who tested positive should be followed up with a phone call, and COVID Care Centres and interim Covid care centres may be kept ready as per emerging trend of positive cases.

Kumar said those individuals without adequate facilities for home quarantine may be accomodated in such COVID Care centres.

Noting that 50-100 beds in district college hospitals have been earmarked to treat COVD-19 affected individuals, he said it may be utilised for treating 'serious' and 'high risk' individuals.

Recalling that 14 lakh people were administered vaccines during the mega vaccination camp held on June 12, he said on normal days, only about 50,000 vaccines were administered and it "needs to be 'increased".

"A periodic review may be conducted every Monday morning with all officials and adequate stock of personal protective equipment, triple layer masks and essential drugs may be ensured", he said.